Informed by Astrology

Some thirty years ago a number of scientists banded together and signed a petition stating that astrology was dangerous and useless, and that it should be chased out of our thoughts and beliefs of how the world worked and our place in it. More recently, a professor fumed against the daily horoscope column in a student-run university newspaper, charging that academia was no place for such nonsense. To the professor I wrote back a furious message, that astrology was so much more than Sun sign columns, that if he only took a little time to look into it more deeply, he might learn about himself and others than he could have imagined, and even discover why he was being so defensive!

Many people don't know that I study and practice astrology, and have done so for over fifteen years. When I was first getting into it, and naively mentioned my interest to a couple of so-called friends, they mocked me. How could I, pursuing scientific research, do such a thing? I felt embarrassed and confused, and never told anyone else about it for a long while. Then only to maybe two or three people who I sensed would not look askance, and they were all women. All the time, I questioned my sanity, because I was obsessed with astrology, and at the same time, also swore by science and logic. I was a person divided, not having a coherent set of beliefs about the world and how I belonged to it. The conflict tore me apart, and I barely made it through my doctorate thesis. But the damage was done, my self-esteem shattered, and the promise of a career in scientific research forever laid to rest. More than anything else, I was overwhelmed with shame and guilt. I had let down my family and myself, betraying the cause for which I had traveled so far and worked so hard at building a new life.

There were no role models that I could turn to for hope and guidance. All the astrologers that I knew of had come to astrology by way of the arts, humanities or social sciences - not one of them had an advanced education in the mathematical or life sciences. There was much in common between psychology and astrology, and I regretted that I had not studied psychology formally, for it would have made my incursion into astrology understandable. Still, in studying astrology I taught myself enough psychology to understand the correspondence between the two, and in time, understood that just because I was competent in science did not mean I had to choke my unscientific interests. Or that because I journeyed into the deepest recesses of astrological ideas and knowledge, I had to suspend my judgment and common sense.

I saw astrology as a bridge between the inner and outer lives, a Jung-meets-Einstein kind of happening, a potent combination of intuition and reason, faith and skepticism. I realized that I was in a perfect position to bring a scientific temper - data, hypothesis, logic, repeatability - to the practice of astrology, even as I journeyed inward in synchrony with the planets, their myths and metaphors. I learned to separate the quacks from the serious astrologers, to check all claims against data, to work by starting with a small set of axioms and logically inferring all else, to be aware of the constant dance between fact and meaning, reality and perception.

Now, I quell the voice that still questions whether my life can be informed by both science and astrology with a plain retort: I was born and raised in India, and my psyche was bathed in the healing power of the myths and symbols of astrology long before I was consciously aware of it. It is who I am, I had better believe it.